Cet language
| Cet language | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Created by | L. J. Rotfels |
| Date | 2016 Readopted: 4 March 2020 |
| Purpose | |
Standard forms | Standard Cet Vowel-Simplified Cet |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Ceticilia EodusMiakoku |
| Regulated by | Cet Consortium |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
Cet is a constructed language that was originally developed for official use in Ceticilia. Currently it is official in two countries, both of which are micronations: Ceticilia and Eodus. Cet derives most of its vocabulary from Germanic languages with a small amount of Finno-Ugric and Turkic influence, with the grammar being similar to that of the Turkish or Hungarian language, as it is a highly agglutinative language with an SOV word order.
Cet has seen very many changes over the years, to a point that the original language file is barely recognizable as Cet anymore. Over time it has also shifted the goal from being the language for Ceticilia to being a personal project of L. J. Rotfels
History
The development of Cet, at the time still called The Ceticilian Language, started in early 2016, before Ceticilia even had a President. Thus the history of Cet is strongly associated with Ceticilia. Originally Cet had much more original vocabulary and the grammar was shaky at best, which was corrected with several reforms throughout the years. Many of these documents have been lost, though, so it is most likely impossible to assemble a comprehensive history of the language.
From the end of 2019 L. J. Rotfels intended to stop development on Cet because of concerns of it sounding unpleasant and being too difficult, however on 4 March 2020 she founded the Cet Consortium and started working on another reform that would greatly change the way the language sounds, along with removing unnecessarily precise grammatical cases.
Phonology/Orthography
Vowels
Cet has four non-accented and four accented vowels, the accented vowels being the accented versions of the former.
| ORTHO | a | e | i | o | á | é | í | ó |
| NUCLS | ɑ | ɛ | ɪ | ɔ | oː | eɪ | iː | oʊ |
Consonants
Cet has 19 consonants, two of which are not written with the basic latin alphabet.
| ORTHO | b | c | ć | d | ð | f | g | h | j | k | l | m | n | ng | p | r | s | ś | t | þ | v | w | x | z | ź |
| ONSET | b | ʤ | ʧ | d | ð | f | g | h | j | k | l | m | n | - | p | r | s | ʃ | t | θ | v | w | - | z | ʒ |
| CODAE | p | ʧ | ʰʧ | t | θ | pf | k | x~ç | j | ʰk | l | m | n | ŋ | ʰp | r | ts | tʃ | ʰt | tθ | f | w | ks | s | ʃ |
Vowel Harmony
Cet has a very simple back/front vowel harmony. The vowel harmony in Cet is intended to stop large consonant clusters. The back vowels are a,á,o,ó and the implemented vowel here is -a-, the front vowels are e,é,i,í and the implemented vowel is -e-. There is one exception to this vowel harmony in the vocative which uses -ó for back vowels and -í for front vowels. An example of the former vowel harmony is the genitive of <<ház>> ("house") which is <<házam>> ("of the house/the house's"). An example of vocative is <<lili>> to <<lilí>> or <<hans>> to <<hansó>>. (If a name ends with a vowel it is replaced by the vocative ending.)
Dialects
So far only two varieties and no real dialects of Cet exist: Standard Cet and Vowel-Simplified Cet, the latter was developed to help people that are unable to pronounce certain vowels speak unambiguously. The two varieties do not differ at all in grammar and are only different in spoken language.
Vocabulary
Cet's vocabulary is, for the most part, derived from Germanic languages, chiefly German, English, Swedish, Icelandic and Dutch though there is some original vocabulary and a non-zero amount of Turkish and Hungarian influence. Most words that use a dental fricative in English use a dental fricative in Cet, too. The German affricate /pf/ is not existent in Cet.
A comparison of Germanic languages in relation to Cet can be found in the table below
| Cet | German | English | Swedish | Icelandic | Dutch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ís | Eis | ice | is | ís | ijs |
| þorn | Dorn | thorn | tagg | þyrnir | doorn |
| rós | Rose | rose | ros | rós | roos |
| apel | Apfel | apple | äpple | epli | appel |
| þro | (be)drohen | to threaten | att hota | ogna | (be)dreigen |
| sov | schlafen | to sleep | att sova | sofa | slapen |
| nastdag* | morgen | tomorrow | imorgon | á morgun | morgen |
| nast | nächste/r | next | nästa | næst | volgende |
| dag | Tag | day | dag | dagur | dag |
* nastdag consists out of the words <<nast>>, the superlative of <<na>> "near" and <<dag>> "day".
Scientific vocabulary
Scientific terms usually have at least two words for them in Cet. The word for oncology in Cet, for example is <<krablern>> (literally crab learn, as the latin word for crab is cancer) as well as <<onkologí>>. Hematology is <<blodlern>> or <<hematologí>>.
Demonyms/Countries
Cet vocabulary for countries, places and demonyms mimics the inhabitants' pronunciation of said places.
Grammar
Cet grammar follows SOV sentence structure and a fixed syntax for agglutination on nouns, verbs and adjectives.
Nouns
Cet nouns are words that describe objects or things instead of actions, qualities or attributes. Nouns follow following basic syntax:
(conjunction)-noun stem-(augmentative/diminutive)-(plural)-(case)-(negation)
Augmentative and Diminutive
The augmentative in Cet is constructed by attaching -*st to the noun. The augmentative is an expression of greater intesity.
The diminutive is constructed by attaching -j** to the noun. The augmentative is an expression of lesser intensity.
In summary the augmentative and diminutive are direct opposites. <<ház>>, the Cet word for "house" becomes a mansion when the augmentative is attached (<<házast>>) and a cottage when the diminutive is attached (<<házja>>).
Plurals
There are two kinds of plural in Cet, additive and associative plurals.
The additive plural is akin to what is generally understood as plural in English (i.e. apple -> apples), while the associative plural is akin to the associative ending -たち (-tachi) in Japanese. The associative plural can be understood as "{noun} accompanied by associates". <<karltas>> could be understood as "Karl and his friends".
The additive plural uses -*s, while the associative uses -t**s.
Case
There are currently 18 cases in Cet, nine of which are locative cases and nine of which are non-locative.
Locative cases
- Elative (-b**b)
- Delative (-b**)
- Inessive (-n**n)
- Superessive (-n**)
- Adessive (-p**p)
- Illative (-d**d)
- Sublative (-d**)
- Perlative (-r**p)
- Prolative (-d**r**p)
Non-locative cases
- Nominative
- Accusative
- Genitive (-*m)
- Benefactive (-*f)
- Instrumental (-*p)
- Comitative (-***)
- Abessive (-t**)
- Semblative (-s**m)
- Vocative (-ó / -í)
** Implementation of vowel harmony compulsory.
*** Implementation of vowel harmony compulsory and replace vowels if word ends with them.
Verbs
Cet verbs are words describing actions. The basic syntax is:
(conjunction)-(voice)-(mood)-verb-(person)-(time)-(negation)
Voice
Cet has a passive and an active voice, the passive voice is analogous to that of the English language. It is implemented by preceding the verb with an implementation of vowel harmony using the first vowel in the succeeding word. <<destí>> would therefore mean "I eat" and <<edestí>> would mean "I am (being) eaten".
Mood
There are five moods in Cet, one of which is a realis mood and the other four irrealis moods.
The realis mood is the indicative mood, which is the default and is generally unmarked.
The other (irrealis) moods are:
- Subjunctive (d*-)
- Conditional (b*-)
- Jussive (r*-)
- Hypothetical (k*-)
Personal pronoun endings
| 1st Person | 2nd Person | 3rd Person | 4th Person* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SGL | -í | -ó | -é | -á |
| PLU | -ín | -ón | -én | -án |
| XTR* | -ík | -ók | -ék |
The endings ík, ók and ék mean "we (excluding the listener)", "one" as in "one must" and "someone" respectively.
The fourth person refers to the agent, if clarification on agent and patient are necessary.
Tense
Cet has three tenses: future, present and past. Originally it had a whole host more tenses but the other tenses were removed to simplify the language. The temporal endings are -*s for the future and -*l for the past. The present is not marked as it is the default tense in Cet.
Adjectives
Adjectives are descriptive words, their basic syntax is:
adjective-(comparison)
Adjectives that are attached before nouns are to be ordered as following:
Opion – Size – Age – Shape – Color – Origin – Material – Purpose
Comparison
There are two types of comparison in Cet, the comparative and the superlative. Both intensify the adjective.
The comparative ending is -*c and the superlative is -*st
Causatives (experimental)
Causatives are a special kind of verb that are created from non-causative verbs by accenting the first vowel in the verb stem. In case the verb stem already has an accented vowel as first vowel, the accented vowel is repeated after the consonant that follows it. <<o>> ("to have") becomes <<ó>> ("to give") and <<ház>> ("to house") becomes <<házá>> ("to make someone house (something or someone)"). If there is no consonant in the verb root after the first vowel the letter -h- is to be implemented.
Conjunctions (experimental)
There have been four conjunctions developed in Cet:
- s*- also/too
- o- o- either...or
- ot- ot- neither...nor
- tvé- s- both...and
Negation
The ending for negations is -*t.
Numbers (experimental)
Ordinal
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | ... | 20 | 30 | ... | 60 | ... | 100 | 200 | ... | 1'000 | 1'000'000 | 5'963'817 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| én | tvé | þré | fé | féf | sés | sém | ék | nén | ten | en | tve | ... | tvés | þrés | ... | séses | ... | tens | tvétens | ... | kil | meg | féfmeg en nénkilsésestré en éktensses |
Cardinal
Cardinal numbers use a dot after the last digit, the pronunciation changes as if there were an -*st after the digit.